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Friday, October 2, 2026

Bereshis 4

This class finishes the six days of creation and reaches Shabbos, covering Bereshis 1:28 through 2:3. Before the verses come the ten things created at twilight on the first Erev Shabbos and the shedim (demons) left without bodies when Shabbos began. The verses cover the mitzvah to marry and have children, the food given to man and animals, "very good," Vayechulu, Hashem ceasing on the seventh day, and the blessings of Shabbos. Two ideas keep coming back. First, creation was built with a purpose: everything was made for man and set up to bring the Jewish people to accept and keep the Torah. Second, Shabbos testifies that the world Hashem made is complete, with nothing missing.

The pesukim

Bereshis 1:28

וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֹתָם֮ אֱלֹהִים֒ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר לָהֶ֜ם אֱלֹהִ֗ים פְּר֥וּ וּרְב֛וּ וּמִלְא֥וּ אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁ֑הָ וּרְד֞וּ בִּדְגַ֤ת הַיָּם֙ וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וּבְכׇל־חַיָּ֖ה הָֽרֹמֶ֥שֶׂת עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fertile and become many. Fill the land and conquer it. Dominate the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every beast that walks the land.

Hashem blesses the man and woman He created: be fruitful and multiply, fill the land and conquer it, and rule over the fish, the birds and every living thing. From this blessing comes the mitzvah to marry and have children. Hashem wants His world lived in because He created it to give us the greatest pleasure, which comes from doing His mitzvos and recognizing His greatness. So the more people there are, the more the purpose of creation is fulfilled. A person should therefore put real effort into marrying and building a family, and not push it off.
Bereshis 1:29–30

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים הִנֵּה֩ נָתַ֨תִּי לָכֶ֜ם אֶת־כׇּל־עֵ֣שֶׂב ׀ זֹרֵ֣עַ זֶ֗רַע אֲשֶׁר֙ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י כׇל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וְאֶת־כׇּל־הָעֵ֛ץ אֲשֶׁר־בּ֥וֹ פְרִי־עֵ֖ץ זֹרֵ֣עַ זָ֑רַע לָכֶ֥ם יִֽהְיֶ֖ה לְאׇכְלָֽה׃

God said, "Behold, I have given you every seedbearing plant on the face of the earth, and every tree that has seed bearing fruit. It shall be to you for food.

וּֽלְכׇל־חַיַּ֣ת הָ֠אָ֠רֶץ וּלְכׇל־ע֨וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֜יִם וּלְכֹ֣ל ׀ רוֹמֵ֣שׂ עַל־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־בּוֹ֙ נֶ֣פֶשׁ חַיָּ֔ה אֶת־כׇּל־יֶ֥רֶק עֵ֖שֶׂב לְאׇכְלָ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃

For every beast of the field, every bird of the sky, and everything that walks the land, that has in it a living soul, all plant vegetation shall be food." It remained that way.

Hashem tells Adam and Chava that every seed-bearing plant and every tree with seed-bearing fruit is food for them. All plant vegetation is food for every beast, bird and creature that has a living soul. Rashi reads these as one message: humans and animals were given the same plant food. The Ramban reads them as two separate commands. People could eat grains and the fruit of trees, while animals were limited to the vegetation of the ground. The reason he gives is that feeding both the same thing would treat man's existence as equal to an animal's, and that would be disrespectful to the human being.
Bereshis 1:31

וַיַּ֤רְא אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֔ה וְהִנֵּה־ט֖וֹב מְאֹ֑ד וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם הַשִּׁשִּֽׁי׃

God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. It was evening and it was morning, the sixth day.

Hashem sees everything He made, "and behold, it was very good." It was evening and morning, the sixth day. After the earlier days the Torah says only "good" (and after the second day not even that). Here it adds "very," me'od. Rearrange the letters of me'od (mem, alef, dalet) and they spell Adam. What made everything very good was the creation of man, because the whole universe, from the first day on, was made for humanity, and once man existed the whole creation had its purpose.
Bereshis 2:1

וַיְכֻלּ֛וּ הַשָּׁמַ֥יִם וְהָאָ֖רֶץ וְכׇל־צְבָאָֽם׃

Heaven and earth, and all their components, were [thus] completed

Heaven and earth and everything in them were completed. This is Vayechulu, which we say on Friday night. When we say it, we are testifying that Hashem created the world, and keeping Shabbos is that same testimony: the world is one hundred percent complete. Everything was made in six days, each thing in its proper time, nothing less and nothing more. So on Shabbos a person does not live with "if only this were different." He lives with the knowledge that nothing is missing.
Bereshis 2:2

וַיְכַ֤ל אֱלֹהִים֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י מְלַאכְתּ֖וֹ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֑ה וַיִּשְׁבֹּת֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּ֖וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשָֽׂה׃

With the seventh day, God finished all the work that He had done. He [thus] ceased on the seventh day from all the work that He had been doing.

With the seventh day Hashem finished the work He had done, and it ceased on the seventh day from all that work. The verse does not say that Hashem rested, because Hashem does not tire. It says the creation itself ceased. One of Hashem's names, Shakai (spelled shin, dalet, yud), means "the One who said: enough." Through the six days everything Hashem commanded into being kept growing and spreading. When Shabbos arrived He told it to stop, because the world was exactly as He wanted it, and without that word creation would have gone on expanding forever.
Bereshis 2:3

וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃

God blessed the seventh day, and He declared it to be holy, for it was on this day that God ceased from all the work that He had been creating [so that it would continue] to function.

Hashem blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He ceased from all the work He had created. He blessed Shabbos with three blessings. First, money spent in honor of Shabbos is paid back. Second, food cooked for Shabbos has a special taste. Third, we receive the extra soul, which carries a little of the hidden first light.

English from The Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, used with the permission of the Kaplan family. Hebrew: Miqra according to the Masorah (CC BY-SA).

Takeaways

  • When Shabbos is approaching, drop everything and greet it, even a profitable deal: Hashem Himself left the shedim unfinished rather than work into Shabbos.
  • Treat your struggle with the evil inclination as the opposition that makes you great, not as an enemy: that is why it is called "very good."
  • Try to come away from every week, and especially every Shabbos, with at least one new Torah insight your soul can bring up.
  • On Friday, accept Shabbos as if your week's work is complete, and spend freely in its honor, because what you spend for Shabbos comes back.
  • Marriage moves a person from living for himself to living for others. Don't push it off.
Going deeper— the stories, Kabbalah and the reasons behind the reasons

A quick review of days one through six

  • Day one: heaven and earth were created and light was separated from darkness; its element is fire.
  • Day two: the firmament divided the upper and lower waters; its element is air. Day three: dry land (water and earth) and the plants, which contain all four elements.
  • Day four: the sun, moon and stars, again fire. Day five: fish and birds, air and water. Day six: the land animals (earth), then man, who contains all four elements.
  • The Me'am Loez places the laws of family purity (nidah) here and says to read them at least three times a year so as not to stumble. They are left for later, and anyone who gets engaged can go through them together with me.

Ten things created at twilight before the first Shabbos

  • Between sunset (shkiah) and the stars coming out (tzeis hakochavim) is a time of doubt about whether it is still day. So we start Shabbos at sunset and end it at stars out. Hashem alone knows the exact instant one day ends and the next begins.
  • At that twilight between the sixth and seventh days, Hashem created ten things. More precisely, He commanded that each one come into being at its set time in history.
  • The ten: the mouth of the earth that swallowed Korach, the mouth of Miriam's well, Bilam's talking donkey, Noach's rainbow, Moshe's grave, the shamir, the writing on the Luchos (the tablets), the Luchos themselves, Moshe's staff, and the ram Avraham offered in place of Yitzchak.
  • The shamir was a worm the size of a barley grain that could split the largest mountains. Shlomo used it to cut the stones of the Beis HaMikdash (the Temple), because metal is used for war and destruction and could not be used.
  • The writing on the Luchos was cut all the way through the stone, so it could be read from every side. The middle of a closed letter like the samach floated in place.
  • The Mishnah in Avos lists these with a different order and includes the mann (manna) and the shedim.

Shedim: spirits whose bodies were never finished

  • Shedim (demons) were also created at that twilight, to punish the wicked. Shabbos came in before their bodies took form, so they stayed spirits without bodies, and they come at people quietly to harm them. We are not wicked, and they do not harm us.
  • According to the Gemara in Chagigah 16a, they are like angels in three ways: they have wings, they can fly from one end of the world to the other, and they know the future. They are like people in three ways: they eat and drink, they have children, and they die.
  • They are made of only fire and air, not all four elements. They are nourished by the smoke of fire, which is why sorcerers burned incense: to feed them.
  • Some can appear in any form or stay invisible. Some are like Jews who know Torah and some are not. Some have two heads, and they can be bound by an oath not to harm.
  • The lesson: Hashem stopped in the middle of creating the shedim and left their bodies unfinished rather than work into Shabbos. So when Shabbos is coming, drop everything and rush to greet it, even if a big profit is waiting.
  • Halloween grew out of the belief that evil spirits come on that day to haunt people, which is why people put up skeletons to scare them off. It is a pagan holiday and not one to celebrate.

Marriage: when, why, and what it does to past sins

  • The ideal age to marry is 18. It is hinted in the verse about the Kohen Gadol taking a wife, where the word v'hu ("and he") has the numerical value 18. Twenty is the outer limit.
  • An unmarried man is very susceptible to sin, because the evil inclination is strong. Single life also makes it hard to give oneself to Torah, since you have to run everything yourself. Marriage gives a person the clear mind (yishuv hadaas) to learn and serve Hashem.
  • The Shechinah (Hashem's presence) rests on the Jewish people only when there are 600,000 males over age twenty, married or single. If there is one fewer, it departs. So a person should bring as many children into the world as he can to keep that number full.
  • When choosing a wife, choose a good woman whose values are in order, who knows what life is about and is working to live a life of Torah and mitzvos.
  • People say that when a man marries, his sins are forgiven. The Me'am Loez explains how it works: at the wedding the sins are only set aside. If he then gives his life to Torah and mitzvos, Hashem sees that the sins came from being unmarried and erases them. If he carries on as before, it is clear the cause was not being single, and the sins come back to him.
  • In practice, the mitzvah is fulfilled by having a son and a daughter, and a couple should keep trying until they have both.
  • Why is it "not good for man to be alone"? A rav in the Mir Yeshiva once explained to me that a single person lives for himself, and that breeds selfishness. Once you are married, and especially once you have children, you start living for others: for your wife and for your children.

Being fruitful in Torah

  • The Zohar says "be fruitful and multiply" also refers to Torah: a person should give birth to a new insight in Torah every day. Someone who learns but never produces an original idea is like a barren tree with no fruit.
  • Learn something new every day and review what you learn. If you cannot learn on your own, at least listen to a class and take in one new insight a week.
  • The Zohar teaches that after Shabbos the extra soul goes up, and Hashem asks it what new Torah it learned below. If it has an insight, the angels are gathered to hear it and the person enjoys the glow of their wings. If it has nothing to say, the silence is painful and embarrassing.
  • So especially on Shabbos, come up with a new idea on the parsha. Your soul brings it up, and they celebrate it in heaven.

Good and very good: why the evil inclination is a gift

  • Fire can burn and water can drown, yet Hashem calls His creations "good." Their main and most frequent use is for good, even though they can also cause harm.
  • Bereshis Rabbah and the Zohar teach that "good" is the yetzer tov, the angel of life, and "very" is the yetzer hara, the angel of death. The evil inclination is "very good" because it is there for our benefit: without opposition a person never rises, and if it were easy it would be worth nothing.
  • The Zohar's parable: a king forbade his son to be with any woman but his own wife, on pain of banishment. Then the king secretly hired a beautiful prostitute to tempt the prince every day. The son resisted, and the overjoyed king treasured him more and showered him with gifts, all thanks to the temptress.
  • The Zohar chose temptation by women on purpose. It is the hardest test for a young man, and passing it is a big part of Yosef's greatness: young, handsome and admired, he faced it and held firm.
  • The Toldos Yitzchak notes that the Torah never calls man himself "good." Every other creature is born complete, like an animal that stands up and runs at birth. Man is born without intellect or skills and with free will, so that he builds himself. He can be called good only after his life is over, if he made the right choices.

"The sixth day": creation on condition of the Torah

  • On every other day the Torah says "a second day," "a third day." Here it says "the sixth day," with the letter hei, whose value is five. The whole world was created on condition that in the year 2448 the Jewish people accept the five books of the Torah. Otherwise it would return to tohu vavohu, chaos and void.
  • Rashi also reads "the sixth" as the sixth of Sivan, the day the Torah was given. The whole world was waiting for that day.
  • It follows that nature is built to get the Jew to accept and keep the Torah. When we follow it, nature supports us with blessing. When we don't, it pushes us back, the way the Land of Israel brings curses and spits out those who leave the Torah.
  • The Zohar lists a condition Hashem built into each day. The heavens would let Eliyahu enter alive, and the light would give way to three days of darkness in Egypt. Water would purify the impure. The sea would split for Israel and drown the Egyptians, and the land would swallow Korach.
  • More conditions: the sun would stand still for Yehoshua and the stars would fight Sisera. The ravens would feed Eliyahu and the fish would swallow Yonah and cast him out whole. Mankind would include a widow commanded to sustain Eliyahu.

Seventy-two hours that a sin undoes

  • The Zohar says Hashem created only during the daytime: six days of twelve hours each, seventy-two hours in all.
  • According to Kabbalah, a sin corrupts the world, so to repair it a person would ideally fast seventy-two hours, one for each hour of creation.
  • The word for oath, shevuah, is related to shavua, week. A false oath is like returning the seven days of creation to chaos and void.

Saying Vayechulu and what Shabbos testifies

  • We stand for Vayechulu on Friday night because we are witnesses that Hashem created the world, and a witness in a Jewish court stands. It is said by at least two people, the number for testimony. Someone who cannot read Hebrew fulfills it by listening to the chazzan.
  • Do not talk while the chazzan says it. A saint once saw one of his students in a dream with a jaundiced face, and the student explained it was because he had talked during Vayechulu.
  • When a person says Vayechulu, two angels place their hands on his head and say: your guilt is removed, your sin is atoned.
  • Carrying outside an eruv is a related idea: inside it you are in the zone of Shabbos, where everything you need is present. Taking something out of it says something is missing. Working on Shabbos says the same thing on a larger scale, that Hashem did not finish the world in six days.
  • The Gemara in Sanhedrin 65b: when Turnus Rufus asked Rabbi Akiva to prove Shabbos is real, Rabbi Akiva pointed to the Sambatyon river. All week it rages and hurls stones into the air, and on Shabbos it rests.
  • There are two Jewish beliefs that even some Gentiles share: that the world was created in six days and that Hashem will resurrect the dead. Many also believe the soul lives on after death.

Why six days: the six thousand years of history

  • Hashem could have made the world in an instant. He took six days because the world is meant to last six thousand years (Sanhedrin 97a), and each day hints at one millennium.
  • Years 1–1000 (day one, light then darkness): Adam in Gan Eden was the light, and after his sin came darkness: Kayin brought murder and Enosh's generation began idol worship. "Light" appears five times on day one and "darkness" three, so there was much good and a little evil.
  • Years 1000–2000 (day two, not called good): this was the time of the flood. That is why the sages advise not starting something new on Monday. The firmament that separated the waters hints at Avraham, who divided mankind into believers in one God and those who did not believe.
  • Years 2000–3000 (day three, "good" twice): this millennium saw the Exodus and the giving of the Torah in 2448. The plants waited underground until Adam prayed for them, just as the Jews multiplied in Egypt until they received the Torah.
  • Years 3000–4000 (day four, two great lights): great kings, peace and wisdom. The two lights stand for the written and oral Torah, and for the two Batei Mikdash (Temples): the first reached its greatness then, and the second was the smaller light, like the moon.
  • Years 4000–5000 (day five, fish and birds): the Temple was destroyed, and nations swallowed one another like fish. The eagle that rules the birds is the symbol of Rome. Years 5000–6000 (day six, man): our era, the peak of creation, when Mashiach is to come. The seventh day, Shabbos, alludes to the World to Come.

Shabbos the bride, and finishing "with" the seventh day

  • Vayechulu can also be read as kallah, bride: heaven and earth dressed up like a bride. So we welcome Shabbos the way a groom welcomes his bride, as we sing in Lecha Dodi.
  • Vayechulu also means "completed." Creation was complete only once man was made, since it was all made for him.
  • The verse seems to say Hashem finished on the seventh day, yet He rested on it. When the sages translated the Torah for King Talmai they changed it to "on the sixth day" (Megillah 9a). Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's Living Torah renders it "with the seventh day."
  • The answer: Hashem knows the exact instant Shabbos begins, so He finished at a moment that looks to us like Shabbos. We cannot know that instant, so we add to Shabbos and start early rather than risk breaking it.
  • We call Shabbos chemdas yamim, "most cherished of days," though the phrase is not in the Torah. It comes from an Aramaic translation that reads vayechal as longing: Hashem longed for and cherished the seventh day.

Evolution, and accepting Shabbos as complete

  • The source that Hashem said "enough" to the world is Reish Lakish in the Gemara, Chagigah 12a. The universe kept expanding and developing through the six days, and at Shabbos everything stopped. Nothing new has been formed since.
  • The Torah neither proves nor rules out evolution. If it happened, whether the universe expanding or living forms developing, it took place within the six days and stopped exactly where Hashem wanted.
  • We do not know how long those days were, because the system of a 24-hour day was itself set in place during creation. They could have been billions of years. The Torah tells it to us as six days and a stop, and that is how it wants it told.
  • The practical lesson: "Six days you shall work, and the seventh is Shabbos to Hashem." When Shabbos comes in, treat your week's work as complete, even if one more email seems unfinished. Accepting Shabbos that way is how we show we trust Hashem.
  • The Mishnah in Avos says the world was created with ten sayings. They are: "In the beginning," light, the firmament, the gathering of the waters, grass, the luminaries, the teeming waters, the earth bringing forth life, "let us make man," and "it is not good for man to be alone."

The three blessings of Shabbos

  • Every Rosh Hashanah it is set how much a person will earn that year, but money spent in honor of Shabbos is not part of that budget and is guaranteed to come back (Gemara, Beitzah 16a). Shopping on Friday is like using Hashem's credit card, better than any Amex Black.
  • The first Mishnah in Shabbos speaks of yetzios haShabbos shtayim shehen arba, technically the ways of carrying out on Shabbos, "two that are four." Read playfully, it says: spend two for Shabbos and get four back.
  • Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi once served the Roman emperor Antoninus (identified with Marcus Aurelius) a cold meal on Shabbos, and he loved it. On a weekday he served him the same food hot, and Antoninus asked why it was not as good, offering to send the missing spice from his palace. Rebbe answered that the spice was Shabbos itself.
  • Food cooked by someone who keeps Shabbos properly carries that special taste, and so does the fragrance. Someone who does not keep Shabbos properly will not have it.
  • The first light Hashem created was so great it had to be hidden away for the tzaddikim, so the wicked could not misuse it. It shone for 36 hours: 12 from Adam's creation on Friday and 24 of Shabbos. A small part remains on Shabbos through the neshamah yeseirah, the extra soul. That is why on Shabbos morning we say Nishmas, "the soul of every living being."
  • Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi and Antoninus were lifelong friends. Antoninus descended from Esav and Rebbe from Yaakov, and neither of their tables ever lacked any delicacy.

"Which God created to make": miracles never stop

  • The verse ends asher bara Elokim la'asos, literally "which God created to make." In the six days Hashem completed the physical world and the whole spiritual system of the upper worlds, and on the seventh He ceased from that.
  • There is also a world of miracles, where Hashem steps into our lives and breaks the laws of nature. That was never finished and has no end: Hashem keeps making new miracles for the Jewish people.
Review questions
  1. Name four of the ten things created at twilight before the first Shabbos. Why were the shedim left without bodies, and what does that teach us?
  2. According to the Me'am Loez, what really happens to a person's sins when he marries, and what decides whether they are erased?
  3. Why does the word "very" (me'od) appear only after man was created, and how can the evil inclination be called "very good"?
  4. What is hinted by the extra letter hei in "the sixth day," and how does it show nature is set up to support Torah?
  5. How do the six days of creation map onto the six thousand years of history? Give two examples.
  6. What are the three blessings Hashem gave Shabbos, and what was the "special spice" Rebbe served Antoninus?
Sources
  • Me'am Loez — the running commentary, including how a groom's past sins are set aside at marriage
  • Mishnah in Avos — the things created at twilight, and the ten sayings of creation
  • Gemara, Chagigah — the nature of shedim (16a) and Hashem saying "enough" to the world (12a, Reish Lakish)
  • Zohar — Torah insights as being fruitful, the parable of the king's son, the conditions built into each day, the 72 hours of creation
  • Bereshis Rabbah — good and very good as the two inclinations
  • Sefer HaChinuch — why Hashem wants the world populated
  • Rashi — one food for man and animals; "the sixth" as the sixth of Sivan
  • Ramban — separate foods for man and animals to preserve human dignity
  • Toldos Yitzchak — why man is never called good at creation
  • Gemara, Sanhedrin — Rabbi Akiva, Turnus Rufus and the Sambatyon (65b); the six thousand years (97a)
  • Gemara, Megillah 9a — the sages' changed translation of Bereshis 2:2 for King Talmai
  • Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, The Living Torah — the translations "with the seventh day" and "so that it would continue to function"
  • Targum (Aramaic translation) — vayechal as longing, the source of chemdas yamim
  • Gemara, Beitzah 16a — Shabbos expenses are outside the yearly budget
  • Mishnah, Shabbos 1:1 — "two that are four," read as spending for Shabbos returning double